Hidden Secrets
by 0mgitsm3
Summary: There is more to Aburame Shino than meets the eye.KibaxShino


There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for nearly everything in the ninja village of Konoha. Unfortunately, Shino's feelings just weren't one of those things that could be easily enlightened.

Shino was a mysterious man. His high-collar jacket and dark, round sunglasses would constantly cover up the face he so rarely revealed. He was a man of very little words. Everyone assumed he didn't speak much because he simply didn't enjoy wasting his vocal talents on others. Or maybe he just wasn't the type to let his feelings out. Perhaps he was a man with a dark past he never wanted to reveal. Everyone made assumptions about Aburame Shino.

Everyone assumed wrong.

Aburame Shino did not close himself off from the social world because he disliked speaking or being outgoing. In fact, it was just the opposite. Shino YEARNED everyday to speak more than he did. He wanted nothing more than to laugh over a stupid joke or to cry over a ridiculous occurrence. Shino Aburame wanted to be human. But how was he to do so when he had such a different impression on everyone else? Everyone had already assumed who he was. They thought they knew Shino inside out. They thought there was nothing more than a stoic, empty shell filled with tiny gestures and frustratingly flat remarks. They truly believed Aburame Shino could not laugh, cry, or feel any emotion whatsoever. And, for this very reason, everyone confided in him.

Who better to tell a juicy secret to than a man you know won't speak it to a soul? He won't laugh at you, won't smirk at you, he won't even judge you. He would just sit there and take it in. He wasn't close enough to keep it against you, but not far enough to make it feel uncomfortable talking. He relieved people of their terrible stress and darkly devious secrets. He heard everything there was to hear from nearly every ninja in his generation. Every single person came to him to spill their guts out. Even Sasuke.

Now, if Shino was to break this reputation, his entire career as a ninja could collapse. How would he get jobs if he told the entire village about the secrets he pillaged and hid in his mind? How could he be taken seriously as a gentleman and a ninja if he spilled to the entire village that Sasuke had a wet dream last night about him and Naruto? He couldn't imagine what his "patients" would do if he revealed to Sakura that Ino has been sleeping with Sasuke and Neji. Or if he told the Hyuugas, one of the most prestigious and influential families in all of Konoha, that Hinata snuck out of the house almost every night to "spend time" with Naruto until 4:00 in the morning.

Shino was good at secret keeping, but he wasn't a God. He was a boy who wanted to spill every little tiny bit of information to someone, anyone. He needed to open his mouth and just let his word vomit spill into the atmosphere and travel to someone's willing ear.

This is where Kiba fits into the puzzle.

Shino was desperate to tell someone, and who better to tell than his best friend.

One might think _why on earth would you tell Kiba? He's a loudmouth bag of fleas!_ Shino would easily agree with this statement. Kiba was loud, obnoxious, and fleas constantly seemed to surround him. He was abrasive, rude, and he constantly made a fool of himself. But there is something you don't know about Kiba: He can keep a secret. And Shino knows this because he shares the same secret with Kiba. In fact, Kiba has been sharing a secret with Shino for about four years now. You see, Kiba and Shino are lovers. And no one else has a clue.

Now you may wonder how this tangled, bipolar couple came to be Well, it started after Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were granted their chuunin status at the age of 15.

There was a giant party at the Inuzuka estate. There were tons of relatives from every family: Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hyuuga. There was music loud enough to feel the vibrations throughout all of Konoha; there were blue, green, red, purple, any color lights flashing and flickering all throughout the night. There was food, games, party favors, movies, but most importantly, booze.

Shino refused at first. Drinking at an underage level was completely beneath him. He refused to stoop to his already boozed-up teammate's level. Kiba had taken only a sip, and that was it. His eyes went from alert and excited to glazed and unfocused, his ear-to-ear grin juxtaposed to a rather sloppy frown, his loud and prominent speech was reduced to a slipshod slur with an extra "hiccup" to add some action. He was completely buzzed and ready for anything.

Kiba prodded Shino constantly to take a drink. He repeated over and over again that it wouldn't hurt, that it tasted amazing, that it made your senses tingle. Shino continued to refuse. His clearly annoyed expression was even visible among all the partygoers and entertainment. However, due to Kiba's obvious intolerance to alcohol, Shino's extremely fearsome expression completely passed him by. After two minutes of trying to get him to drink, Kiba got frustrated. He grabbed Shino by the collar and pushed the bottle up to his lips. Shino blushed slightly at the idea of his mouth being on the same bottle Kiba drank from, but he still refused to drink. The smelly alcohol ran down his jacket and onto his pants, leaving a rather embarrassing stain. Kiba chuckled as the stain began to sink in.

Shino was fuming at this point, wondering why on earth he was even bothering to be within twenty yards of this idiot. While Shino tried telling Kiba once again that he REFUSED to drink anything from that disgusting bottle, Kiba hatched an idea.

Shino immediately stopped speaking when he saw that devilish expression crack onto Kiba's face. He knew that face too well. Kiba had a plan something nasty. Kiba grinned more at the reaction he got.

It began as soon as Shino stopped talking: Kiba grabbed his bottle of booze and filled his entire mouth with the liquid. Then, with all his might, Kiba tackled Shino to the ground and roughly smashed his lips on Shinos. Shino opened his mouth out of surprise, and was quickly intoxicated by the dangerous drink slipping down his throat. He choked a bit, and it burned. Shino thought Kiba was done, but he had more. He pushed his lips onto Shino's mouth even farther, getting every essence of the beverage into Shino's body. He used his tongue to line Shino's mouth with the flavor. Shino lay on his back, wide-eyed and completely bewildered.

The crowd around them was certainly bewildered, too.

Hinata abruptly stopped her slow dance with Naruto to find both of her teammates supposedly making out on the dance floor. Her mouth dropped to the ground as she stared in awe. Her face went from a pretty pale peach to a bright, vibrant red. She screamed as she quickly fled the building, Naruto at her heels.

Now, this situation was EXTREMELY lucky and coincidentally helpful for two reasons: One, only a small segment of the three families had laid eyes upon the incident, thus not leading to rumors. The family members were too ashamed to admit two their boys were found making out on a dance floor, especially right after they had just accomplished one of the most hard-earned obstacles in their life. Secondly, Shino happened to notice Kiba was swirling his tongue around his tonsils a lot longer than he needed to. He was surprised to find his own tongue had a mind of its own. It reacted by trying to almost push Kiba's tongue out. They battled until Shino accidentally moaned quietly. He immediately stopped and opened his left eye slightly to see the Inuzuka looking right back at him, blushing and smiling.

That bastard. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing.

And as soon as Shino realized this, Kiba got up and swayed from left to right. He was about to fall when Shino jumped up and supported his dead body weight. He gave an annoyed expression at the drunken fool. Kiba burped loudly in reply.

Shino quickly apologized to all of the watchers. He bowed his head and did not ask for forgiveness. The family members excused him, but with rather disturbed and flustered looks plastered upon their sweaty faces. Shino continued to support Kiba's dead body weight until he made it into Kiba's room and threw him upon his bed. Shino panted for breath. Kiba was heavy.

Kiba slept for about five minutes, then woke up with a start. As soon as Kiba woke up, Shino had him by the throat, pinned to the bed, ready to kill.

Shino could have done whatever he wanted to Kiba at this point. Kiba was in a stupor, dazed by the alcohol and the sudden thrashing of his body. Plus, he had no only made Shino mad, but he had embarrassed him for the very first time. Not only was his first kiss stolen by a boy, but it was in front of dozens of people. Shino's anger boiled inside of him, ready to come out. He glared hotly at the Inuzuka, still in a daze. Shino tightened his grip on Kiba's throat. Kiba coughed and began to gasp for air. Shino swiftly pulled his free hand back, ready to punch the lights out of his teammate. He tightened his fist once more, then shot it forward. It was like a bullet, slicing the air around it.

But even a bullet needs to stop somewhere. Lucky for Kiba, its stopping point was not his face.

Shino stopped less than a centimeter away from Kiba's scared, drunken expression. His fist hovered above Kiba's nose, ready to make its final move. Shino tensed, trying to make his arm function, but something told him not to. As Kiba finally reacted to the punch and tried to move his head out of the way, Shino lowered his fist slowly to the bed. Shino felt defeated.

Never had Shino hesitated to make a move on an enemy. Kiba should have been no different. He made him suffer through things he never wished to experience. He felt shame, pain, and anger. Shino wanted to push it all out somewhere; he needed an outlet. And so he began.

Shino ranted. He ranted and ranted and ranted. He ranted about how much he hated Kiba right now, about how his family will forever condemn him, how his reputation as a ninja could very possibly be over. He complained about how he could never look at Kiba in the eye again. He raved about how his first kiss was stolen by him and he could never have it back. He cried out in frustration. He did all these things (and more), but still could not figure out why he had not punched Kiba's lights out.

Kiba stared at Shino while he raged on and on. He never said a word. He simply listened and waited patiently for Shino to stop. He took all the insults and bad names Shino gave him. He ignored his own feelings in order to listen to Shinos. He listened to the sound of his voice when it cracked in anger; he listened for the carefully placed punctuation on words like "bastard" and "fucker." Kiba took it all in and didn't say a word. Not a word.

After what seemed like hours, Shino stopped and gasped for air. His mouth was dry from talking so long. He stared at the Inuzuka long and hard, then came to a realization.

_I love him._

This was a rather hearty conclusion to jump to. Shino was a man who always thought before he acted. He was never impulsive or easily riled (well, with the exception of tonight). He was a man of few words because he always thought before he spoke. Shino was smarter than your average teenager, and because of this, Shino came to this grounded conclusion.

Thoughts flashed through his mind, whizzing past him faster than splitting air. He remembered all the times Kiba had brought him THIS CLOSE to smiling. He remembered all the times Kiba riled him up so much, Shino could have just punched Kiba all the way to the Sound Village. He remembered all the times Kiba tried so hard to get close to him. Every time Kiba did something, Shino would push him or pull the denial card. It wasn't because Shino was immature. No, it wasn't that at all.

Shino was afraid.

Loving a man wasn't natural. Men were supposed to find women, love them, have children with them, and live a healthy life. He was supposed to uphold the family name. Shino was the first and only heir to the Aburame throne. His clan was a small, but highly respectable within the entire ninja society. If word was to get out that he felt this way toward a boy, well, he didn't want to know the consequences. But what he felt was real. It is real. He felt real affection for Kiba. Shino thought about Kiba when he went out on missions with his father, hoping he'd run up to him and beg for the voyage's details. Shino thought about Kiba whenever he needed a friend to go somewhere. Shino always was thinking of Kiba.

But this wasn't friendship.

Maybe it was a mix of hormones and friendly feelings that got Shino to think this way about his canine teammate. He wasn't sure. But all he knew was that he felt more than friendship. Shino constantly thought about Kiba, but when Kiba was actually within reaching distance, Shino hesitated. His speaking became lower and his eyebrows strained to become more furrowed. He shoved his hands in his pocket, afraid he would move them around too much. He spoke shortly and with finesse to weaken his chances of being embarrassed. Shino was insecure, but he was never able to admit it to himself…until tonight.

You would have never guessed Shino was nervous around Kiba if you looked at them from afar or two feet away. Shino was amazing that way. Such coolness, such a sense of placidness. That was Shino Aburame. He was like diamond in the rough- Stronger than steel, stronger than anything. He hid away his and other's secrets. He carefully cared for his self image. But most of all, he hid his feelings. He hid them deep inside, far enough for not even him to reach them. The secrets and pain were twisted and tangled in a wild jungle all around his heart, shadowing his pulsating struggle for survival with terrifying and powerful emotions. Shino was living a life of denial, a life of too much structure. Never had he once done something he wanted to do. He never wanted to hide anything, he never wanted secrets, he never wanted any of this! He wanted one thing, and one thing only.

To be free.

Diamonds may seem unbreakable, but with enough scratches and scars, they will break. And with this, Shino shattered into a million, tiny pieces.

Kiba stared at Shino as all these realizations smashed themselves into Shino's mind. Shino's everlasting furrowed eyebrows began to unfurl; his unmoving face became a frown. He was shaking from head to toe, moving Kiba's bed in the process.

Kiba was a little scared. He still had the alcohol in his system. Not to mention the breakdown Shino had earlier.

So Shino to do something he had always wanted to do. Ever since he was friends with his teammate, he had one thought that lingered in his mind until he shut it away with his key. But today he tore the lock apart. Blood rushed to his head and fingers. His face brightened as he took one last swallow before the big dive.

Shino smashed his lips onto Kiba's mouth. Shino knocked his tooth on Kiba's, but he didn't care. He had been wanting this for longer than he would ever admit. Kiba's eyes widened, but then softened. Drunk and happy, Kiba happily kissed back, but not quickly enough. Shino pulled back and began to speak with godspeed. His tongue flapped against his mouth so fast, you only saw a blur. His mouth wanted to reveal every secret he was ever told. He told Kiba about Shikamaru and Temari. He told him about how he's loved Kiba for the longest time. He revealed his all-knowing of Asuma's life with Kurenai. Shino went on and on, but before he could finish, Kiba pressed his lips against Shino's, hoping he understood how he felt about the bug-boy.

Shino did.


End file.
